elegance coral placement
 

I just got my elegance coral a couple days ago. And had heard a couple differing opinions as too where to put it in the aquarium. I place it with the cone in a niche in the rocks horizontally. where it was mid way up in the 30 gallon tank. I have 124 watts of T5ho and I thought it had a good spot to get craddled. But the next morning it my surprise it opened up increasing in size greatly to the point that a third of it was suspended horizontally. it looks super happy but should I place it on the ground or should I lay in some live rock to support it a bit? I dont want to fix anything that isnt broken.

Place it in the sand! Make sure the flesh can NOT touch any rock.

yup, sand. if you read about the elegance, this is where they are found int he wild. mine likes a gentle current and opens up the most when the current sways back and forth...they are deceptivley small when closed and can open up huge when happy. ive seen so many at LFS's in the rocks...not where they belong

ciclidconvert- post up a picture! That's awesome that its doing well. This is one of my favs but I've been hesitant in getting one.

Exactly. Gentle current. Careful with clowns in the tank.

Elegance corals do not need to be in the sand. If fact, in the ocean, they grow much faster, and much larger, when they live on coral reefs. They seem to grow, and generally do much better, for me, in the rocks as well. The idea that elegance corals need to be placed in sand, really needs to be changed. Sand harbors rotting organic matter that releases phosphates, that in tern inhibits elegance coral growth and health.

I wouldn't position the skeleton horizontally though. It should be close to vertical, so that the polyp is facing the light. I typically position mine a few degrees off of true vertical, simply so I can view them easier.



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Thanks for the advice. I've had the same questions about placement.

Here is a video that i made during the first day of acclimation. Its skeleton is horizontal and it is laying against the live rock. All of it was pretty smooth. I ended up moving some of the rock out a bit using EC's suggestion tipped the cone more vertical. I will post a video of that in a minute and you can see the differance. the new placement makes it to where the coral doesnt touch any live rock. its a little precarious but once I am happy with the placement I am going to use some aqua mend to cement it into place.
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O.K. here is the video of the new placement. As you can see it is hanging free of the live rock. And it appears to be pretty happy with it. I just feed it half of a chopped up prawn and looks like it ate almost all of it. The largest piece can still be seen in the video. I wish my Iphone cam could pink up the colors on this thing it is a darker red and the green striations are florescent. I am a fan elegance corals now for sure.
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OK I changed the placement of the elegance to be lower and horizontal for a time because it was hanging in mid air too much and was tearing away from the skeleton up top it looks like its growing back and when it does I am going to get it more vertical but with more support from some LR. it does look happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M***...yer_detailpage

posted twice

it's about a foot across. on the sand. i've had it for over a year. it's been through a move. i've never had a problem.
i feed rotifiers, and coral food every other day.
it's under 8x54 T5 28" from the lights to sand.


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That's a beautiful elegance my friend!

thanks!

please elaborate on the "Careful with clowns in the tank" statement. I have several clowns in my tanks with my elegance coral.

I have always placed them in the sand it is where they are found in the wild. that is why they have a cone shaped base. although I have seen a few bigger ones that look more like a wall type skeleton those would be better mounted on the rock. I have 5 currently all in the sand bed.

Clowns can be murder to these LPS. I had clowns with mine and they lived in/around it. They constantly pestered it. Some clowns can be so bothersome that they kill the elegance.

plus 1
 

^ Agreed.